Why NM Meta child safety verdict could be 'first crack in the dam'

Here & Now Anytime

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4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2026

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

In a first-of-its-kind verdict, a jury in New Mexico found Meta hid what it knew about child exploitation on its social media platforms. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez explains how the company misled children and teenagers about the safety of Facebook and Instagram.

Then, the Department of the Interior is paying a French energy company nearly $1 billion to stop plans to build an offshore wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean. Grist staff writer Jake Bittle details why the Trump administration is so against wind energy.

And, the war in Iran continues to harm energy markets around the world. Samantha Gross, director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution, discusses the long-term effect.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:05.5	It's the first but not the last time that I think juries across this country are going to demand real accountability from meta and social media companies writ large.
0:14.5	How New Mexico took META to court over claims of child exploitation on Facebook and Instagram.
0:21.6	And one.
0:27.6	It's Wednesday, March 25th, and this is here at Now Anytime from NPR and WBUR.
0:36.6	I'm Chris Bentley.
0:45.2	Today on the show, extraordinary events in energy.
0:47.4	And it's not just the war in Iran.
0:52.3	The Trump administration is paying a billion dollar subsidy to a French company to not build wind turbines in the U.S.
0:57.3	Also, government payouts notwithstanding, global oil and gas supplies are strained by the war,
1:04.1	which is exposed just how vulnerable we are to shocks in the price of fossil fuels.
1:09.5	I feel like we've gone so far down a bad road, and Iran has really demonstrated that it can effectively close the Strait of Hormuz, that we really don't have a way to go back.
1:21.7	That's what really scares me.
1:24.1	That story coming up in about 10 minutes.
1:27.3	But first, it's a big day for social media companies, though from their perspective, not a good one.
1:35.2	In Los Angeles, a jury found meta and YouTube owned by Google were to blame for the depression and anxiety of a woman who compulsively used social media as a small child.
1:45.7	That verdict comes a day after a New Mexico Jerry found META, the parent company of Facebook,
1:50.9	Instagram, and WhatsApp, knows all about the child exploitation that goes on on its social media platforms,
1:57.2	but doesn't do enough to stop it, prioritizing profits over kids' mental health.
2:02.8	Meta has been ordered to pay $375 million in damages.
2:06.7	The company said it will appeal.
2:09.5	New Mexico's Attorney General Raul Torres brought his suit against Meta in civil court,
	...

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